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Professor Jeff Gentsch is now a full professor of history at the University of West Alabama. He will be leading a full-day hike on the Shiloh Battlefield on April 7, 2017, comparing the American Civil War and the First World War. The date is significant as it is the 100th Anniversary of the United States declaring war on Germany and entering in World War I.

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Hello everyone, Ozzy mentioned terrain. Can anyone point me in the direction of a good topographic map of the battlefield? I have a couple of modern ones but they are cluttered and have the modern roads and other distractions.

I did want to mention a map that I bought a couple of years ago published by McElfresh map co. 1993 a watercolor map of the Shiloh battlefield taken from a map called the Atwell Thompson map which was drawn in 1900, 38 years after the battle, the map shows the locations of roads and lanes fields and the kind crops that were growing there at the time. You can get one on Amazon.

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Great question... I, for one, am continually seeking out maps of the Shiloh Battlefield, and struggle to find accurate maps from 1862 (though even the inaccurate maps are informative for the details they reveal.) Which brings me to the story of George Thom. Appointed to West Point from the State of New Hampshire, Thom graduated with the Class of 1839 ranked No.7 (Henry Halleck was ranked No.3 and Jeremy Gilmer (who became a valuable engineer for the Confederacy) was No.4. George Thom entered the fledgling Topographical Engineers (the "Pathfinder" John Fremont had helped establish the Corps the previous year); and Thom conducted surveys of the Northern frontier, the Northwest frontier, and helped establish the USA/Canada boundary. During the War with Mexico, Lieutenant Thom was Aide-de-Camp on the Staff of BGen Pierce (as map-maker), and following the war, Thom was involved in the boundary survey between Mexico/USA. During the 1850s, Captain Thom was put in charge of constructing military roads in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa... and the Oregon Territory. Shortly after the Firing on Fort Sumter, Thom was recalled from the west, and in November 1861 was appointed to the Department of the Missouri (under MGen Halleck) as Chief Topographical Engineer.

When Henry Halleck arrived at Pittsburg Landing on April 11th 1862, Major George Thom arrived with him, and soon set to work creating maps:

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Ozzy, Thom had quite a career. Wow. All of the places he traveled. Incredible. He arrived and got to experience the horrible aftermath of Shiloh. Here is a section of a topographic map that I have. I shows the area of Hildebrand's Brigade quite well but it's all I have, notice it includes the swampy bottom land. Thom misses the ravine to the right Shiloh church but the rest is pretty damn accurate. That ravine and the area around it had many burial pits and it simply may have been to repulsive to go into, depending on when he staked it out.